Description

Appearance

The Hi-Speed Shoes from below.

The Hi-Speed Shoes greatly resemble the Power Sneakers. Featuring more foot-shaped proportions and outlines, they are mostly red with tongues, solid white cuffs, and thin white straps with golden fasteners on each end over their middle. The outsoles are yellow, red and grey, highly detailed, and have a red recess below the in-steps. The rims on the front of the outsoles are white, while the heel rims are grey and the rims on the middle have yellow and white arches.

Features and abilities

Like the Power Sneakers, the Hi-Speed Shoes appear virtually friction proof, showing no wear from being used to run at the speed of sound. In addition, they are specifically made for the grinding maneuver,[2] ensuring high-speed movements on Grind Rails.

Sonic X

Soap footwear

Real life soap shoes.

The Hi-Speed Shoes are derived from the real-life Soap shoes, which are shoes made for grinding. They were introduced by Chris Morris of Artemis Innovations Inc. with the brand name "Soap" in 1997. They have a plastic concavity in the sole, which allows the wearer to grind on objects such as pipes, handrails, and stone ledges. The company and their product rapidly gained popularity through fansites, a video game, and live demonstrations. Soap fell to legal vulnerabilities and was readministrated twice, eventually bringing the brand to Heeling Sports Limited. The act of grinding on rails and ledges specifically using Soap shoes has been dubbed "soaping," with the "soaper" being the one performing said act.

Soap in Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic in City Escape grinding with the Hi-Speed Shoes. A poster from Soap is seen in the background.

Sonic Adventure 2 presented many billboards, blimps, and benches advertising Soap due to a partnership to promote the product and the new extreme sport, freestyle grinding, that Soap's shoes were made for; the Hi-Speed Shoes in Sonic Adventure 2 were conceptualized for this purpose. Although grinding has remained a core gameplay element in subsequent Sonic games, officially licensed Soap shoes have given way to generic grind shoes. Pending the sale of Soap to In-Stride and later HSL, no actions were taken for the continuation of the partnership.

In the opening cutscene in Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic normal shoes are seen as he jumps out of the helicopter. However, in the next shot of Sonic, he is wearing the Hi-Speed Shoes. This is only seen in the Dreamcast version, as it is fixed in the Sonic Adventure 2: Battle ports.

A pair of Sonic's Hi-Speed Shoes dubbed "Sonic's 2G Hi-Speed Shoes" can be unlocked for an Xbox Live Avatar by amassing a total playtime of 10 hours in Sonic Adventure 2. The shoes, however, are not as detailed as their in-game counterpart.

Interestingly enough, the Soap brand has two shoes named CHAOS_6028 and CHAOS_6029. Whether this is a reference to the Sonic the Hedgehog series is not known.

References

↑ 2.02.1Sega of America (March 2007). Sonic Central. Sega of America. “Darrell C: Why did you change your shoes in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle? / Sonic: Those were special shoes that were specifically made for grinding. It was something that I've always wanted to try and it sure came in handy! Look forward for some more intense and extreme grinding in my next adventure, Sonic Heroes.”